Semi-automatic marksmanship competition pistol for rapid precision firing

ABSTRACT

In a semi-automatic marksmanship competition pistol for rapid precision firing, an external hammer or striking mass slides in a direction substantially coinciding with the axis of the barrel of the pistol and cooperates with at least one firing pin carried by an obturator aligned with said hammer or striking mass.

United States Patent l 3,711,980 Palama 1 Jan. 23, 1973 [54] SEMI-AUTOMATIC MARKSMANSHIP 1,693,530 1l/l928 Spencer .....42/l6 COMPETITION PISTOL FOR RAPID 2 Mllbank "41/16 PRECISION FIRING Roberto Palama, via Cavalcanti, 2l-Vercelli, Italy Filed: Sept. 21, 1970 Appl. No.: 73,786

lnventor:

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Burton ..42/l6 Swebilius ..42/75 H Primary Examiner-Benjamin A. Borchelt Assistant Examiner-C. T. Jordan Attorney-Shlesinger, Fitzsimmons & Shlesinger [57] ABSTRACT In a semi-automatic marksmanship competition pistol for rapid precision firing, an external hammer or striking mass slides in a direction substantially coinciding with the axis of the barrel of the pistol and cooperates with at least one firing pin carried by an obturator aligned with said hammer or striking mass.

3 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJAN 23 m5 SHEET 1 [1F 3 mks/fin 7 04mm INVENTOR.

PATENTEDJAH 23 I975 SHEU 2 OF 3 PATENTEDJAN 23 1975 sum 3 or :3

INVENTOR.

SEMI-AUTOMATIC MARKSMANSHIP COMPETITION PISTOL FOR RAPID PRECISION FIRING The present invention refers to a semi-automatic marksmanship pistol for rapid precision firing, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to a 5.6 caliber semi-automatic pistol.

It is known that for manufacturing marksmanship pistols, for which maximum dimensions and weight are fixed by international regulations, which also specify that the longitudinal axis of the barrel must be above the highest point of the hand gripping the pistol, it is necessary to consider a plurality of characteristics of the pistol.

These characteristics can be summarized as follows:

. accuracy of fire;

. great safety of handling;

. only slightjump;

. easy adaptability to the hand;

. safe operation;

. simple and strong construction; and

. prompt, progressive and uniform trigger action.

The accuracy of a pistol depends on the quality of the barrel, and especially on the way it is connected to the body of the firearm. The stronger the connection between the barrel and the body of the firearm, the greater is the accuracy of fire.

In this regard it is necessary to bear in mind that in competition firearms the barrel must of necessity be removable so as to be able easily to remove from the cartridge chamber deposits resulting from continuous use; this requirement is strictly bound up with the fact that precision barrels must never be cleaned from the muzzle end.

ln view of the continuous use of the pistol during practice and competitions safety of handling is an essential requisite. Consequently, competiion pistols must have the most efficient safety devices and also constructive expedients that will allow the user to establish readily at sight whether the firing pin is cocked, the magazine full, whether the cartridge is in the breech and other similar safety conditions. When firing in rapid succession, the more the marksman is facilitated the less the arm will jump at each shot. The moment of the recoil force with respect to the pivot point of the marksmans wrist must therefore be very low. For this purpose it has been attempted to reduce the lever arm of the recoil force by keeping the barrel axis low with respect to the pivot point of the firers wrist by means of a suitable butt angle, and to reduce the recoil force by piercing the barrel in the upper part in the maximum pressure zone after the cartridge chamber, so that the escape of gas at the time of firing produces a moment contrary to the moment of the recoil force. In order to increase the pistols adaptability to the firers hand the mechanisms must have suitable shape, size and positioning.

It is convenient, for instance, that the magazine and other mechanisms should not be located inside the pistol butt, so that the latter can be given a suitable stand and such as will bring the barrel axis close to the pivot point ofthe firer's wrist.

Generally, conventional pistols for rapid precision firing can be divided into three broad groups according to the percussion device used.

A. pistols with external rotating hammer and firing pin; this percussion device makes the arm particularly safe in that the firer can see if the pistol is cocked or not. Nevertheless said device has the disadvantage that the barrel axis with respect to the pivot point of the firers wrist cannot be kept sufficiently low. ln fact the external rotating hammer is always located at the rear of the firearm, in order to be acted upon by hand, and is hinged to the piston grip which is between the thumb and forefinger of the firers hand; therefore, this percussion device does not allow the firearm to be gripped at a very high point owing to the fixed position of the external rotating hammer and to its motion of rotation in a vertical plane, whereby the lever arm of the recoil force is considerable.

B. pistols with internal rotating hammer and firing pin; this percussion device provides a concealed hammer or striking mass, which has both the aforesaid disadvantage and the disadvantage of scarce safety since the firer cannot see if the percussion device is cocked or not. Furthermore, if the percussion device is cocked, it cannot be manually uncocked by the firer.

C. pistols with sliding firing pin; this percussion device is not used for competition pistols and it merely comprises a firing pin inside the pistol body which is actuated by spring means. While such a percussion device has the advantage of occupying very little vertical space and therefore of allowing a reduction of the lever arm of the recoil force, it is not visible and consequently the handling of the firearm is not very safe.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a semi-automatic competition pistol for rapid precision firing having a construction capable both of satisfying the aforesaid requirements and of obviating the disadvantages of conventional pistols.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a pistol of the aforesaid type whose structure allows an easy disassembly of the barrel from the pistol body for maintenance and cleaning purposes by providing a connection between said barrel and the pistol body such as assumes high accuracy comparable with that of pistols having the body and barrel in one piece.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a pistol of the aforesaid type which does not comprise devices difficult to manufacture or such as frequently requires inspection and adjustment.

Another but not least object of the present invention is to provide a pistol of the aforesaid type which can be manufactured from commercially available materials and by conventional processing, so as to be economically advantageous. These and other objects and advantages, which will appear hereinafter, are achieved by a semi-automatic pistol for competition for rapid precision firing according to the present invention comprising an external hammer or striking mass sliding in a direction substantially coinciding with the barrel axis and co-operating with at least one firing pin carried by an obturator unit in alignment with said hammer.

For a better understanding of the invention and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of a pistol made according to the invention gripped by a firer;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the pistol body and barrel;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view in enlarged scale of the obturator unit;

FIG. 4 is a sectional detail of the obturator unit of FIG. 3;

FIGS. and 6 are respectively a side view and a top view of the pistol body;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view in enlarged scale of a detail of the pistol; and

FIG. 8 is a side view, partly in section, of the pistol made according to the invention.

With reference to the drawings, the pistol according to the invention comprises an elongated body 1, manufactured advantageously from steel, the upper profile of which defines an intermediate recess 2. Said recess 2 separates the end portions 3 and 4 of said body 1 from each other, which portions are respectively connected to a barrel 5 and and butt 6 of the pistol as will be explained hereafter. A rectangular slot 7 in the body 1 in correspondence with said recess 2 has opposite sides 8a, 9a, and upper flat surfaces 8, 9, respectively. A bore 10 provided with a median slit 11 in its lower part passes through the end portion 3; said slit 11 being the extension of the slot 7. Fifteen is a partially tubular element which comprises two portions 14, 14, respectively, solid and hollow. The solid portion 14 of said tubular element 15 is freely movable in an eccentric dead hole 13 in the end portion 4, whose outer end terminates at the face 12 of the latter. This tubular element 15 is so dimensioned as to project out of said face 12, over and parallel to the surfaces 8, 9 of the sides 8a, 9 a, respectively. An obturator 16 and a hammer or striking mass 17 reciprocates on the surfaces 8, 9 of the recess 2. Both the obturator and hammer 17 are manufactured from parallelepiped steel blocks, the width of which is the same as the width of the body 1 and the height being the same as the height of said recess 2.

The tubular element 15 guides the reciprocating motion in the recess 2 both of the obturator l6 and hammer 17. For this purpose, the obturator 16 includes a longitudinal eccentric dead hole 16 a (FIG. 3), and the hammer 17 includes a longitudinal through hole 17a. A spring 18 is housed in the aforesaid hollow portion 14 of the tubular element 15, one end of which spring abuts on the bottom of the dead hole 16a of said obturator 16 and the other end abuts on the bottom of the dead hole 16b of said tubular element 15.

As will appear hereinafter, such spring 18 serves for returning the obturator 16 to the starting position after the hammer is cocked (FIG. 1).

The through hole 17a of the striking mass 17 comprises two sections having different diameters, as can be seen in FIG. 8, the larger diameter section determining a seating for accomodation of a spring 19, which is carried by the tubular element 15 and constitutes the propelling means of said striking mass. The obturator 16 comprises in addition a longitudinal eccentric through hole 20, in which slides a striker 21, shown in the FIGS. 3 and 4.

The reciprocating motion of the obturator l6 and hammer or striking mass 17 is guided both by the tubular element 15 and by a flat piece 22 of stainless steel. For this purpose the obturator l6 and striking mass 17 have in their upper surfaces longitudinal slots 23 and 24, respectively, in which said flat piece 22 slides.

The upper surface of the back end portion 4 of the pistol body 1 is also provided with a longitudinal central slot 25, in which is removably housed said guiding metal piece 22. The piece 22 is fixed by a screw 26 which fixes at the same time the tubular element 15. For this purpose the end section 14 of said tubular element 15 has a semicircular notch 14a which engages with the shank of said screw 26 (FIGS. 2, 8). In addition a seating 27 is provided in said end portion 4 for accomodating the sighting device, generally indicated with 28, laterally and vertically adjustable. A case 29 defining a butt 6 and a seating for accomodating a magazine 30 is connected centrally to the body 1. In said case 29 is arranged the gunlock of the pistol according to the invention.

The barrel 5 is inserted in the bore 10 of the portion 3 and removably fixed therein by a screw 31. The operation of the pistol so constructed is the following:

To cock the pistol it is sufficient to manually pull the obturator 16 towards the portion 4 of the pistol body 1, so as to engage the hammer or striking mass 17 with a pawl 29a of the aforesaid gunlock (FIG. 1) against the action of the springs l8, 19.

The obturator 16, not being blocked, when released, owing to the action of the spring 18, returns to rest position. Meanwhile, by known mechanisms, not shown, a shell is inserted into the barrel. By pulling the tigger 29b, the pawl 29a is lowered and the striking mass 17 is disengaged, whereby the latter, owing to the action of the spring 19, is urged towards the obturator 16 where it strikes against the projecting head of the firing pin 21 causing the same to slide inside the obturator 16 and the cartridge to explode.

One part of the gas generated by the explosion causes in known and therefore not described manner, the pistol to recharge, and another part, issuing from a plurality of ports provided on the upper part of the barrel 5, reduces the recoil. During tests it has been ascertained that the pistol according to the invention achieves all the proposed objects, with particular reference to firing accuracy, the reduced jump due to the sliding hammer or striking mass which makes it possible substantially to reduce the lever arm of the recoil force with respect to the pivot point 0 (FIG. 1) of the firers wrist. Another particular advantage is that the firer can control at sight the condition of the firearm and can manually place the striking mass against the obturator. For this purpose the said striking mass is advantageously provided with openings 32 in its side faces.

Yet another particular advantage is that the barrel 5 can be easily removed from the pistol body, thereby allowing frequent maintenance and cleaning of the cartridge chamber and of the barrel.

Another but not least advantage is that the pistol according to the invention can be manufactured from very few parts as compared with conventional pistols for rapid precision firing.

Although one specific embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it is obvious that many modifications thereof are possible within the scope of the appended claims.

lclaim:

l. A semi-automatic pistol having A body which has a longitudinally extending recess in its upper part,

a barrel removably secured to said body,

section is conjugated with the cross section of slots provided on the upper part of said prismatic bodies and constituting said counter-guide means and in which said guide means is slidably engaged.

3. A semi-automatic pistol as claimed under claim 1, wherein a tubular element is connected with said pistol body and projects longitudinally into said recess further to support and guide said hammer and obturator, spring means is connected to said tubular element, said tubular element is slidably inserted in holes of said prismatic bodies, and said hammer and obturator move in said recess urged by said spring means. 

1. A semi-automatic pistol having A body which has a longitudinally extending recess in its upper part, a barrel removably secured to said body, a hammer mounted on said body to slide in said recess in a direction coinciding substantially with the axis of said barrel, an obturator mounted on said body in longitudinal alignment with said hammer to slide also in said recess, a firing pin slidably carried by said obturator and aligned with said hammer, both said hammer and obturator being prismatic bodies, the upper parts thereof being provided with counter-guide means slidably connected with guide means on said pistol body.
 2. A semi-automatic pistol as claimed under 1, wherein said guide means is a flat piece whose cross section is conjugated with the cross section of slots provided on the upper part of said prismatic bodies and constituting said counter-guide means and in which said guide means is slidably engaged.
 3. A semi-automatic pistol as claimed under claim 1, wherein a tubular element is connected with said pistol body and projects longitudinally into said recess further to support and guide said hammer and obturator, spring means is connected to said tubular element, said tubular element is slidably inserted in holes of said prismatic bodies, and said hammer and obturator move in said recess urged by said spring means. 